Yap: Burrito baby

Alexis Yap Lex in the city

THERE is a place, by the Banilad flyover, where unexpected, pleasant surprises can be found. In my personal opinion, the food industry in Cebu is growing slowly, but surely and this small Mexican joint is one of the handful welcome additions to the foodie’s relatively long list of must-go food places.

Stylist makes Cebu his new home

HE has decided to finally settle, bidding goodbye to the cosmopolitan, globetrotting lifestyle that he has been used to for 20 years.

While tending his newly bought bichon frise, a dainty, furry canine he aptly named Cotton, Filipino-Canadian hair stylist Philip Sumampong said he has decided to make Cebu his new home. He fell in love with the country’s beaches, he said, and Cebu City, which is just a drive away from these beauties, was the perfect choice.

Tv host up close

Caren Hope Tancinco gets candid with a familar face on regional television

A familiar face on television aims for the stars but keeps his feet on the ground

A submarine story

Fiona Patricia S. Escandor

Or how Cebu tourists can go underwater without getting wet

Love is love, re-invented or not

“I’M currently reading Pride and Platypus: Mr. Darcy’s Dreadful Secret by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian. This piss-take on an Austen classic shakes up the gentry in early 19th century England, where the men of Meryton change into animals at the turn of the full moon. Social status depends highly on the sort of animal the man of the house changes into; the furrier and more savage, the better. However ostentatious the story’s new premise is, the details don’t change. Elizabeth Bennet doesn’t marry for convenience or for ferocity. Mr Darcy is still arrogant, high and mighty.

Pedrosa: Getting the right monitor (Part 2)

Albert Pedrosa Photo mania

IN the first part of this article, I mentioned screen technology, bit depth and resolution of monitors. All these play a major role in the selection of monitors for photographers.

The mind’s back kitchen

Michelle Varron It’s cold in the tropics

TODAY someone asked me about how I manage to write, what I do to think the way I think, and put things together the way I put them together, and I answered her that it’s all a very ugly business.

Secrets of shoestring

( 2nd of 3 parts )

Collated by JONA Branzuela Bering

Marco Polo celebrates Earth Hour

MARCO Polo Plaza Cebu joined the global community in celebrating Earth Hour last March 23.

A campaign organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Earth Hour encourages households and businesses to turn off lights for 60 minutes (from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.), with the aim of raising awareness on the impact of climate change.

Very much a woman

A STAGE director gets real about life, her advocacy and The Vagina Monologues

As a wife, mother and educator, I feel that it’s my responsibility to, at least in my own way, inform and educate about the plight of abused women and children. And through my passion, I hope to touch people’s hearts, open their eyes and move them to do something about it.

Vivagina

Exposed: The Vagina Monologues cast reveal their thoughts on the hot-button play

CELEBRATED on Feb. 14 with events held until the end of Women’s Month (March), V-Day stands as the cornerstone of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. The worldwide movement, which commemorates its 15th anniversary, was created with the vision that each local community will stage performances of TVM to raise money for the benefit of female victims of violence and sexual abuse.

Pedrosa: Digital Workflow

Albert Pedrosa Photo mania

EVERY photographer has his own workflow that fits his style and requirement. The workflow starts from downloading the images to output either for print or web. It may look very simple but from the many photographers I’ve met, it is surprising to know that there are a number of varieties they use to achieve almost the same output.

Ypil: For Old Time’s Sake

Lawrence Ypil Dog-ears in the wrong notebook

EVERY generation is defined by the fears they harbor and the dreams they keep alive.

On being a writer

Marilyn Duterte Oppus

EVERY day, a writer confronts the challenge of putting his words on paper, with the hope of enticing his readers to understand and appreciate his ideas. It is a daunting task. I gathered from the Internet on how to be a writer, and there is one advice that is ever-present among the innumerable advices–to practice writing every day. Writing is a skill, and like any other skills, one has to hone that skill to become adept at it. I am quite certain that this is what every successful writer does on a daily basis.

Booked: a night of music in a book shop

Archell Vergara

THE newest branch of La Belle Aurore played host to a special acoustic set performance by alternative rock band Bethany in collaboration with jazz singer Nickie J and her crew last March 9. Aptly called “Booked,” it was the pilot show for what is going to be a regular music series in the book shop.

Showroom for design that makes sense

“THERE is no project too big or too small to undertake,” says Gregg Huettel of Allison Tyler Luxury Home Furnishings, a new artisan furniture and accessories shop in Cebu, the first of its kind to open locally. At retail level it offers custom-made pieces designed by Gregg himself.

Gregg has made an illustrious career spanning 25 years in the design industry. He and his wife Agnes own and manage Asian Link Designs, which mainly caters to a foreign clientele. Allison Tyler is their first entry in the local scene.

Happily busy

Fiona Patricia S. Escandor finds out the meaning of multitasking from a cheerful entrepreneur

A young woman ditches a dream, finds the entrepreneur’s playground

And nobody told you it’s summertime?

THE days have gone by so quietly you haven’t noticed it’s the month of March. No big deal, right? Not if you’re indifferent to the sun, sea and sky.

Otherwise, you’d be surprised to know that March officially heralds the summer season. And that can only mean one thing: travel.

Women with a horrific past find their way

“I AM a mystery/suspense/thriller kind of reader but this piece of literature stirred up my interest. Firefly Beach by Luanne Rice is about a dysfunctional family and a young love lost because of some inevitable events.

Taken from the masters

Photo Mania Albert Pedrosa

EARLY this week I was watching “Visual Acoustics.” It was a film about Julius Shulman, one of the most respected architectural photographers of all times. Most popular during the modernist times of architecture, he retired when post-modernism started to come in. He said he could not understand the designs anymore.

If you live to eat, work out to live

Alexis Yap Lex in th city

MOST of the time food gets featured here in my column. Today I am writing about something that complements the foodie’s love for it.

Why do balloons fly?

Tiffany L. Neri

AS I bummed around my room one afternoon, my thoughts just started drifting. Little snippets of memories played like videos in my head. As I was leisurely flipping through them like one would an iPad, I came across one snippet that caught my attention. It was a pretty simple memory that could have easily passed me by but instead it got me thinking:

I am the rain

(To a rice farmer after El Niño)

Sing my arrival And let the brown earth Turn green as blades Of grass sprout And tender rice stalks Salute the sky Like soldiers In green.

Marriott Hotel celebrates 15 years in Cebu City

IT is said that a city has not arrived if it does not have an international chain present within its borders. That message was only one of the highlights mentioned by Cebu City Marriott Hotel’s general manager Bruce Winton in his opening address at the hotel’s 15th anniversary celebration last March 7.

In search of the Cebuano writer

Hi-D Palapar

IT is a human response for writers to seek the company of their own kind. And at the Taboan Philippine Writers Festival, funded by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in Dumaguete City last Feb. 7 to 9, one finds such a community.

Sisters on the go

Fiona Patricia S. Escandor adds it all up as three siblings count their blessings

SAY “Riz” and the three ladies all turn to look. Sisters Rizanne Ostrea-Tiongko, Rizelle and Rizbelle Ostrea have a lot of things in common.

Facing life’s music with a mic and subtitles

Fiona Patricia S. Escandor

HE will be celebrating his tenth anniversary in showbiz this year, but instead of doing it on primetime or on a variety show, Judah Paolo will feast on endless rounds of good food, drinks and his favorite songs.

March, March more

Marco Polo’s Toast to the Graduates

Celebrate well-earned success at the hotel’s Café Marco. Dine as a group of five for either lunch or dinner buffet and the graduate’s meal is on the house. This promo is valid from March 15 to April 15. For table reservations, dial 253-1111.

Strobe light and shutter speed

Albert Pedrosa Photo mania

INSIDE the comforts of a big aircon bus, I suddenly found myself in a majestic six-lane highway with pine trees on the sides. The typical smell of an aircon bus was replaced with a fresh scent of air coming from the pines. I swear I thought I was in another country. Could this be Tagum City, my final stop in my “lighting and retouching” workshop?

With the intensity of second love

Michelle Varron it’s cold in the tropics